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Who was Cassandra?

In the Iliad, she is described as the loveliest of the daughters of Priam (King of Troy), and gifted with prophecy. The god Apollo loved her, but she spurned him. As a punishment, he decreed that no one would ever believe her. So when she told her fellow Trojans that the Greeks were hiding inside the wooden horse...well, you know what happened.

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June 29, 2005

Equality

The other evening, J. and I sat on the edge of the lake in Parc Lafontaine, watching people walk by, and as a male couple passed, hand-in-hand, we remarked on the ease with which same-sex couples seem to carry on their lives in this city. So it was with happiness that we saw the news this morning, that the same-sex marriage bill had passed in the Canadian legislature, after a four-month debate that had threatened Paul Martin's Liberal government (they had promised to introduce this legislation). The final passage was even fairly easy: 158-133, with the conservative reaction sounding pretty much the same as it does in the U.S.

Both the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP had been in favor of the bill, but I was still surprised by the following:

Thirty-two Liberal MPs challenged Martin's view and voted against the bill during the final vote, as did the NDP's Bev Desjarlais.

Party leader Jack Layton immediately stripped Desjarlais of her post as party critic for foreign aid and transport, and sent her to the Commons backbenches. Layton had ruled his caucus was not free to oppose the bill because it involved minority rights.

Well! When was the last time we heard anything like that? On the other hand:

Three Conservative MPs broke ranks to support the legislation, while a handful of Bloc Quebecois MPs opposed it, as did two former Liberals who left the party to become independent MPs because of the initiative...

Divisive politics, to be sure, but not as divisive as below the border.